Blizzard bans or suspends over 5,000 Battle.net users for cheating in StarCraft II

Blizzard said it would ban StarCraft II players for cheating last month, and sure enough, the developer laid the smack down on those who failed to heed the warning yesterday.

According to Blizzard, over 5,000 folks participating in online multiplayer battles on Battle.net were either banned or suspended from the multplayer service for cheating or using hacks to play online.

Per a statement on the SCII community site, the company said: "In addition to undermining the spirit of fair competition that’s essential to play on Battle.net, cheating and hacking can lead to stability and performance issues with the service. Maintaining a stable, safe, and secure online-gaming experience for legitimate players is a top priority for us, and we'll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and take action as needed."

At least they game folks a warning quite a while in advance.

Thanks, BigDownload.